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It is only now that the Creative Connections display is open we can truly see what we have created. When commissioned last summer to make a new piece of moving image work in collaboration with students from Brentside High School, my first job was to research sitters in the Collection with links to the borough of Ealing. The criteria for having your portrait included in the Collection is that you must have made a notable contribution to British life and culture. Peter Crouch played for England; Steve McQueen is an Oscar winner; Spencer Perceval was a Prime Minister.…

After a year in the making, Picture the Poet has taken to the road – a touring exhibition of photographic portraits from the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection that will travel across the country engaging regional audiences, schools, young poets and photographers in the making.
With a wholly digital display in Norwich as the first destination, this month over fifty portraits have been seen in the city centre and a raft of school and young people’s activities has been announced. Crucial to this programme are the partnerships with the National Literacy Trust and poetry organisation Apples and Snakes. It’s been a great start, with over thirty schools showing an appetite to join in.…

A new display has opened at Montacute House in Somerset, the result of an exciting collaboration between the National Trust, National Portrait Gallery and University of Bristol. Pictured and Seen focuses on the relationship between objects and their representation in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century British portraiture. A special option on the university’s MA course in art history offered students a unique opportunity to work with the National Trust and National Portrait Gallery on the interpretation accompanying the display, and the chance to share their research with a wider audience.
All three institutions are lending to the exhibition which, alongside the portraits, features metalwork, glass and books. Included is the Gallery’s vast portrait of the family of Sir Thomas More shown here arriving at the house:…